TuneLab
Helena Hauff Boiler Room x Dekmantel Festival DJ Set
Helena Hauff at Dekmantel Festival playing trance? Of course she is, because nothing is sacred and everything is fuel for her hardware-driven, no-nonsense approach. The crowd is a mix of baffled purists and delighted converts, all swept up in the 140 BPM vortex. Locked at a relentless 140 BPM and primarily in the 12A key, this is a trance and electro set filtered through Hauff's distinct, raw aesthetic.
Her mixing is direct and punchy, letting the tracks' inherent melodrama shine without over-polishing, with key shifts to 3B and 7A adding texture. The energy is overwhelmingly low-end focused at 75%, creating a dense, driving foundation for the soaring synth lines and iconic vocals above. 'Armin van Buuren - Sonic Samba (Rising Star Extended Remix)' is played with absolute seriousness, a 14-minute epic that becomes hypnotic rather than cheesy.
'Darude - Sandstorm' is, predictably, a moment of pure, unironic chaos. 'Rank 1 - Airwave' and 'Alice Deejay - Better Off Alone' are deployed as the undeniable anthems they are, while 'The HAcker - Dans La Salle Des Machines' opens with proper electro grit. From that electro opener, through the trance peak, to the closing mechanical funk of 'Zeta Reticula - Ep 2 A1', this Helena Hauff Boiler Room x Dekmantel Festival DJ Set is a glorious subversion of genre expectations.